For a city this big in Malaysia, it was somewhat surprising that there is no longer a train station here, so we arrive in Malacca in a pretty sub-optimal route via taxi, train, then an hour long taxi. Hindsight suggests that it would have been easier by the direct bus.
Our AirBnB is disappointing. It’s huge (3 bedrooms), it’s clean, has a hot & filter water dispenser and has a massive balcony with a great view over the river, so signs were good on first arrival. Then we find what’s missing. An oven is there for “display purposes only”, there’s no cooking or food preparation equipment, no bin bags, no washing powder, no clothes rack for drying clothes, outside seating has gone mouldy and there’s only 5 hangers (for 3 bedrooms!). The management company seem annoyed when we point out all of this and they somewhat reluctantly provide what is meant to be there. They also get a tad arsey in their review of us for asking for these things. It felt like staying in a show flat. And a show flat where they don’t want anyone to stay or even touch anything.
The building we are staying in is, like our KL apartment, attached to a shopping mall. Unlike KL, this shopping mall has seen better days as it has apparently never recovered from hard times during Covid. But it has a Mr DIY – a shop that fully deserves its own post on this blog – so all is good. This part of Malacca has very few tourists and has some excellent restaurants. Allan has a magnificant prawn & squid Nyonya sambal curry that has stopped his ever-increasing cravings for Indian curry, but is disappointed that the “best curry puffs in Malaysia” never gets a visit.
We walk to the USNECO old town area. Unlike Ipoh’s old town, it’s quite big and the back streets are like the pedestrian streets of a Greek island. There’s history around the old church, street art of all sorts of animals & people (Malaysia does love its street art), lovely shops including the fantastic Orangutan t-shirt shop that we both loved and the stinky Durian cake shop that Chloe loved a lot less so.
We find a quirky museum – The Royal Press – that is full of old printing machines, stamp makers and many other pieces that show the history of print. It brought back memories of Terry Pratchett “The Truth”. There’s even an opportunity to print our own little souvenirs. Fascinating place. As with a few things we’ve made on this journey, we do hope they get home all okay!
Visiting the old town involved walking for around 3km. For a huge change, this was done by walking down a pavement next to the river. A pavements with no cars, motorbikes, cycles or deliveries being made. A pavement that was smooth and well maintained. A pavement that was unbroken and not having to cross any roads for those 3km. You may gather from these joyous words that this is a very rare experience in either Vietnam or Malaysia and allowed us to enjoy the views of the lovely coloured houses without the risk of tripping up or walking into oncoming traffic.
We could love Malacca for the pavement reason alone, but there’s much more to it to enjoy, But, we’ll definitely stay at a different AirBnB next time.
Our full week in Kuala Lumpur ends up being here, yet not here. We experience other cities, other countries, other worlds.
KL is a city of malls. Pretty much everything here can be found in a mall – shops, museums, GPs, cinemas, art galleries, fun fairs, live events. It’s hot, malls are cool, QED. We get our hands on a rather nice flat overlooking one of the newer ones, Lalaport. It has everything you might need – a supermarket, the Malaysia qualifiers for the IESF World Esports Championship 2025 (well done, Arcane Ladies), and, of course, a Mr DIY.
If you haven’t encountered a Mr DIY before, imagine that Woolworths, Robert Dyas and Ryman had a baby and everything it sold was super affordable. No one would need Amazon if there was a Mr DIY near them. We love it. Having secured all of the noodle bowls, fizzy cola sweets, and flannels we need for the moment, our thoughts turn to food.
As a world city, KL offers any cuisine you can think of…except vegan; no one has yet invented a dish that Malaysians won’t merrily add chicken and/or cheesy cream to. We, of course, take full advantage of numerous Sushi Zanmai locations, plus some of the best tapas we’ve had outside Spain, excellent pasta, and some really good coffee with oat milk at Zus. We resist the horror of fizzy coffee mixed with orange juice but Allan quickly discovers Spicy Garlic Prawn Pringles, which he is delighted by but Chloe declares are an eyewatering abomination unto Nuggan.
It’s not all disgusting fish snacks and gaming legends, though. We discover MinNature Malaysia, a labour of love that invites you into the cities, markets, homes, and industries that make Malaysia what it is – but very, very small. It’s like a model village of a nation. We are delighted to spot a tiny ‘Mrs DIY’ in little Ipoh.
Looming over our flat is Merdeka 118, the new tallest tower in Kuala Lumpur and second tallest in the world. Though it officially opened earlier this year, it still has no public visitors, so we content ourselves with going to see Thunderbolts* at the Lalaport cinema. There’s a little thrill in watching the opening sequence, in which Florence Pugh leaps from its roof, knowing that a Black Widow is kind of about to land on our heads.
The towers that Merdeka 118 usurped are the Petronas Twin Towers. The irony that the HQ of one of the world’s biggest oil companies looks like an otherworldly magical fairy tower spun out of air and light is not lost on us. However, it is a wonderful sight lit up at night and has now become tradition that we take a specific photo each time we visit.
The Ilham Gallery, in a hotel rather than a mall this time, is hosting a exhibition that explores the concept of ‘plantation’. Artists look at what the explosion of plantation agriculture has meant for Malaysia personally, politically, environmentally, and socially over the years. From the extraction of wealth and labour by various colonising forces – the UK, Portugal, Netherlands, Japan – to a system of land rights that redistributed some land to many poorer families able to work it for a certain number of years. The impact of monoculture, be it of rubber or palm oil producing trees, has been immense.
On a lighter note (pun intended), we had fairly low expectations of the Immersify digital art experience back at Lalaport but it turned out to be incredibly well done. We were guided through a series of rooms in which different digital images were projected onto the walls – many were animated, some simply played with the light. Yes, it was all very Instagram-friendly, but it didn’t pretend to be anything other than what it was. It was bright, fun, interactive (design your own fish then watch it swim through the digital tank!) and hugely over-stimulating.
The final section brought to life the work of various artists, including Klee and Degas. The Van Gogh section was particularly beautiful – perhaps as his work seems to lend itself to animation in a way few others do. If Van Gogh were working today, we think he’d grab digital media with both hands.
It’s hard to get around by anything other than car and activity seems to centre heavily on malls, but Kuala Lumpur is a great place. Having been here three times, though, we can’t help feeling we’re missing ways to get to the spirit and heart of it. If we come back again, we’ll look for a local tour guide who might be able to open up whole new sides of this megacity.
An early morning start to the Perak Tong Cave Temple just outside Ipoh. Calling this place a just cave temple is a little disingenuous – it’s flipping massive. It’s a huge auditorium with wall paintings and over 30 statues including a 15m high golden Buddha looking over us on arrival.
There’s some natural water features following the rain the night before, fluorescent incense sticks. more statues and there’s even a gift shop selling all your bead and candles needs.
But, the main event was attempting to get to the top of the temple. This involving more steps seen since the late 1990s Top 40. Allan climbs and climbs the often very uneven steps. And just when it seems like the top has been reached, there’s more steps – just like the said pop band’s revival in 2017.
After over 450 steps done in the 31c and 85% humidity heat, the top was reached. It was spectacular, it was awesome but it was very sweaty. And then the descent had to be navigated and those steps didn’t get any better – just like the late 1990s pop band.
So, did Allan reach enlightenment? Probably not. Was it worth it? Definitely yes. On the way back down, it did look like someone did. But, more urgently, it was time for a lie down.
A couple of hours train ride south of Penang brings us to Ipoh. From helpful taxi drivers during our stay further north we learned three things: it’s pronounced Eye-po; it’s famous for its chicken and beansprouts but every person will tell you a different restaurant is the best; and it’s sleepier than the already fairly chilled Georgetown. All of these things turned out to be true, but there’s more to Ipoh than chicken and being in bed by 10.
Malaysia loves a bit of street art and it’s showing in all of its glory as we wander slowly through the heat towards the historic quarter. Appropriately, on May Day (called Workers’ Day here) we come across a mural that celebrates the many different professions that make a town work
Plus, an elephant, a sitar player, and (already a slice of history) an Uber delivery driver.
The old town is small – barely a five minute walk in any direction – but packed with historic buildings, galleries, streets, and alleyways.
This is where we learn more about modern Ipoh’s origins in the tin boom of the twentieth century – a trade that brought wealth to a few, suffering to many, and a better standard of living to the lucky ones in between.
Han Chin Pet Soo (literally ‘entertainment and leisure villa’) was the Hakka Tin Miners’ Club set up in 1893, though rebuilt in 1929 into the three-storey villa we see today. It’s free to enter but you must book in advance (easily done) for the guided tour, which was absolutely brilliant and by far the most engaging museum experience we had in Ipoh.
First things first, this was not (as we thought) a cousin to UK working men’s clubs. Oh no. This was a gentleman’s club, created for the Hakka Chinese millionaire tin mine owners of old Ipoh. It was a venue for socialising and their favourite indulgences – drink, drugs, gambling and prostitution – all legal in their day. In fact, the gaming licence held by the club is still valid, so it’s one of the few places in Malaysia where it’s technically still legal to gamble. Lucky that, as we have photographic evidence of Allan winning his first ever game of Fan-Tan.
The place is packed with information about tin mining, the development of modern Ipoh following a disastrous fire, and how the tin magnates and gangsters became part of the political establishment. Perhaps most fascinating was the huge array of every day items – signs, desks, fans, furniture – that breathe life into an era that is in danger of feeling like dusty history. Our superb tour guide must take a lot of credit for that.
And, finally, after years of envy at Allan having a Malaysian shop named after him (hair styling products and equipment in Gurney Paragon Mall, in case you were wondering) we found one for Chloe. Even better, it was a great coffee shop. Even better than that, they had air conditioning and oat milk!
After 9 days in our lovely and brand new penthouse apartment near the shopping centre, we move closer to more central Georgetown. It describes itself as a “Heritage home” which flags to us even before arrival that it may be a little shabby and overpriced. It is a little shabby; the aircon needs fixing almost as soon as we arrive, odd leaks, the electrics have seen better days and the front door needs a degree in engineering to get it to lock. But it’s very spacious, very convenient for the old town and because it’s on a dead end of a small road, it’s remarkably quiet. The owners were responsive to any issues and especially so when the whole of Penang had their water cut off for 48 hours, they bring us huge buckets to fill and 2 massive drinking water bottles.
There’s also around 10 cats on the street that are properly aloof. The one below was the closest we came to making a friend.
One thing that was constant. At the back of the property there was a recording of chanting on 30 second loop and reading of some sort of religious text. 24 hours a day. It wasn’t loud, but it was at a volume where it just was “there”. It took us at least a week after leaving for it to be removed as earworm stabbing into our brains.
A taxi ride takes us to the bottom of Penang Hill and away from the earworm. We’ve seen the hill from everywhere we’ve stayed both this time and the last couple of times in Penang, but never been. To get to the top, a 10 minute, very steep, funicular ride takes us into the clouds at over 700m.
Even though it’s hazy when we first arrive, the views are incredible over Georgetown and over the water to Butterworth. The top of Penang Hill is a little bit of a themepark. We choose the rainforest walk that is both quiet (apart from the crickets) and gives us even more great views of the forest and over to the mainland. It also has a cafe that did us an extremely good Oat flat white and spinach pie – nice.
Georgetown, like most places we’ve visited, is a gourmet delight. We’re staying right next to the wonderful Laksalicious that was a favourite of ours back in 2017, but there’s also posher options. One night we hit the Hygge Dining & Bar that promises Spanish/Japanese fusion. Tapas, Seafood Paella and Norigroni (Seaweed inflused Japanese Gin was used in the Negroni). Pushing the limits of our daily budget, but was special.
Onto testing our artistic abilities at the Penang glass museum. It has some exhibits including half of the world record glass mural and videos showing the process, but it’s mainly all about their shop and the opportunity to make ourselves a souvenir. We thought that this involved painting a small glass keyring, no, it was instead a flattened fair sized bottle. We choose a design, we paint, we paint again, we choose a background and after coming back from seeing the shop, we get our flattened bottles – which look absolutely fantastic. Trying not to smash them in the next 3 months is going to be a challenge.
Cheong Fatt Tze’s Blue Mansion was our next stop. We join a guided tour that gives us the low-down on both the original owner and the history of the mansion. Mr. Tze was a Chinese national who was a successful businessman and politician known as the “Rockefeller of China” making his fortune by trading rubber, coffee and team along with owning a bank. He also seemed politically smart by both working for the Chinese government but also giving money to rebels.
The mansion he had built was huge for its day. I suppose with eight wives, you need the space. After he died there was problems and the house nearly fell into disarray. But thanks to his favourite wife, she managed to get lots of lodgers in and somehow keep the structure of the house. It’s more than likely that without her immense hard work, the mansion would have now just another faceless big tower block. It’s now a hotel, has been restored beautifully and is used by films including the blockbuster of Crazy Rich Asians.
We visit the Penang History Gallery. A fascinating place giving many historic stories and recreations of Penang. There’s also crazy use of AI that attempt bring to life both old photos and even paintings of old rulers – with very mixed success. The end result makes it very difficult to believe what we are seeing.
But, the museum and our helpful guide, really bring history to life. Chloe drives a tram and Allan sits in the barbers chair. Almost certainly not original, but it is good fun. We also learn about what happened in World War II – the British bugger off at the earliest possible opportunity as soon as Japanese invasion starts. And come back again once it’s all over.
Once you get past the dodgy AI and knowingly fake exhibits, it’s a superb museum and well worth a visit.
We visit the Komtar which used to be the highest building in the whole of South East Asia. What we didn’t know was this was an entire themepark with food outlets, a dinosaur research centre, dodgums, tech park, aquarium and much more all brought together with a slightly bewildering ticketing system. Yes, we did say Dinosaur park.
We hit the dinosaur research centre expecting it to be a place that cynically chose dinosaurs to get the kids to visit and to be immensely tacky but good fun. What we found was a highly impressive immersive experience. We also find out that dinosaur bones were actually found when building the Komtar and are displayed, so there was a good reason for building this area. There was only us and a family of three kids wandering around the models and animated dinosaurs. The youngest kid seemed genuinely very scared in places whilst her two older siblings seemed to enjoy goading the smaller dinosaurs. What fun.
Then it was time to get to the top of the tower. Or the two parts of the top of the tower. An indoor observation deck was spectacular, the outdoor top floor even more so. The top deck used to be a heliport, but soon was converted to give 360 degree open air views of Penang and onto the mainland. They also had a short glass walkway looking down 60 odd floors where Allan got an unexpected bout of vertigo.
We then chose to go to the self-styled Boutique aquarium. A good range of fish including some that have been bred with jellyfish so are lumunious in UV light, but overall, it did make us a little sad, as some of the tanks were too small especially for some of the bigger fish.
So, it was time to goodbye Penang for the third time. Our taxi driver on the way to the mainland train station even gave us even more sights to see and places to go along with some top tips for our destination of Ipoh. Next time, there may be a railway bridge from the mainland which will take more than hour off the whole journey. And we’re sure there will still be a Sushi Zanmai, so hopefully, we’ll be back.
We get the train from KL to Penang, well, a taxi, a train, a ferry and another taxi. We’ve been here a couple of times before and loved Georgetown; the history, sites, museums and food.
This time we’re staying in two places in Georgetown. Our first week is a couple of km north of the centre in Gurney. We blow out a budget challenging £56pn on what was described as ‘a penthouse’. As soon as we arrived, we knew that it was the right decision and we quickly wish we’d booked longer.
Having travelled around a bit, it’s a rare thing that accommodation actually ‘works’. There’s normally something wrong with it. This might be something simple but annoying, like lights that can’t be turned off from bed or a lack of wardrobe space (often we scream internally to ourselves to ask whether the owner has ever tried staying there themselves). Or it might be something more fundamental: it’s not entirely clean, things leak or don’t work, air conditioning is poor, or it’s in what feels like a dodgy area. This accommodation ‘works’ in every aspect and we love the view of the mountains, the cityscape, and the temples from the vast balcony.
Our apartment also happens to be beside two shopping malls, including one we visited numerous times when we were here last, the Paragon Gurney. Within that there’s a Sushi Zanmai, our favourite food chain in Malaysia. We consume a lot of sushi, five times in eight nights, enjoy the lot and seem to have tried a good percentage of their entire menu. And their menu is vast. And cheap. By now you may guess, dear readers, that it was not a coincidence that the apartment we chose was near the Paragon Gurney and Sushi Zanmai.
Happily there are many other things to see and do. Within five minutes walk is a Thai temple, a Burmese temple, and a Malaysian Mosque. In the blazing sun, the Thai temple in particular shines bright. The dragons guarding the doors sparkle, the gold leaf on the roofs glistens, and pagoda glows. It’s stunning, although 33C and 90% humidity challenge us.
We also had a day out at Entopia. This is a living museum dedicated to butterflies and other insects, but it’s the butterflies that are the star attraction. Walking around, trying desperately not to step on the winged wonders, it’s pretty damn spectacular. The best part is stopping still and being are lucky enough to catch a gap in the many visitors. Lovely.
Paragon Gurney also has a cinema. In fact, it has eight screens and now even an iMax. We go twice. Once to see the incredibly silly, but good fun, Minecraft movie, the other to see Howl’s Moving Castle, a classic Studio Ghibli. At just over £2 a go, it’s a bargain. The cinema also seems to have moved on from the spicy crab flavour popcorn we encountered in 2017 and onto a more classic caramel. Our nasal senses very much appreciate this change.
So, it’s back to the apartment and to the free show that happens most nights. Thunder cracks and lightning illuminate the sky and forks strike. Often without any rain. Spectacular.
Moving from the bucolic pace of Hoi An to Malaysia’s capital megacity was always going to be a contrast. We’ve been here before but, every time, we forget just how utterly car-dominated it is. It’s one of those places that’s so big that what looks like a trip round the corner on a map is actually an hour’s walk. Pavements, even on major roads, are intermittent at best, stopping suddenly at inopportune moments. It’s hot, humid, and very, very busy.
The view from our flat is spectacular. We can see the KL Tower, the Petronas Towers, even the new mega tower that looks like an 80s mobile brick phone, with dozens of high rises in between. When the inevitable lightning storm strikes, it’s drama all round.
To a passing visitor in the city centre, Kuala Lumpur seems like nothing so much as a collection of shopping centres connected by dual carriageways. The malls are a welcome break from the oppressive weather and are social hubs for many. People come here to eat, hang out, go to the cinema; some even contain amusement parks. But they are set up for cars and taxis – so they are completely disconnected from the city itself. It’s an odd way to spend tourist time.
On our first night, we seek out the nearest Sushi Zanmai – something we’ve been looking forward to all trip. Decent sushi at a price that means a slap up meal for two will still get you change out of £25. It is, of course, in a shopping centre.
We’re only here for a few days before we head north to Penang. We know from previous visits that there’s a real, touchable Kuala Lumpur there somewhere. When we return, this time for a full week, we’ll get out and visit some places that are in the open air – or that at least have windows!
Travelling for many months is such a wonderful thing.
We had 35 days in Vietnam and the first 14 days were due to be in Hoi An to have right restful time. This objective was well and truly completed. All at the same hotel, Banana Garden Villa.
After a week in the madness of Hue, what to do next. Will it be the sights of Ha Long Bay? The mountains of Dalat? The big cities of Ha Noi or Saigon? The mighty Mekong river delta? Err, no, we go back to Hoi An. To the same hotel. But in a deluxe room instead of a superior. For another 13 nights.
Hoi An is a superb place. It’s big enough to have things to see, a beach nearby and, a big draw, 300 odd tailors. We see a few things, including cycling to the beach, a huge lady Buddha, the Terracotta park with memories of home thanks to its global model village, old trading houses. We also get a shed load of souvenirs and presents. But, it still seems to have retained a lot of small town charm.
We hit the tailors. Allan asks the tailor to copy his most favourite trousers, a pair of pretty expensive Ralph Lauren ones that he has with him that are slightly falling apart. They do an exact copy in linen. I mean exact – apart from the falling apart bit. They are so good, five more pairs in various colours and fabrics were ordered at a way cheaper price that Ralph Lauren. Chloe gets tops, trousers, skirt and a jacket made in various colours including green, white, black and blue. All fit perfectly.
We buy enough clothes and presents to post two boxes back to the UK, including the coats and jumpers we needed for Japan that we’re definitely not going to need for the rest of the holiday.
Anyhow, back to the wonders of long travels. Staying in the same place allows us to start getting a little insight into the area and the people.
The place across the road from the hotel who keep chickens have a dog. It takes its guard role seriously, letting other passing dogs know to “get away from my chickens” and also tries to round up any chickens who escape from the front. The former is way more successful than the latter.
The local shop owners get to know us. We still don’t get the local price for groceries, but at least we have a chat.
The local restaurants welcome us like long lost family. They know, or at least guess, what drink we’ll have and agree to do off-menu specials. And OMG, that Prawn in peppercorn was utterly lovely, they simply must put it on the menu.
And a special mention to our hotel in Hoi An, the wonderful Banana Garden Villa. It is everything that a smallish (30 odd rooms) hotel should be. The rooms are huge and feel like they are the size of our flat back home. The staff are so friendly and smiles everywhere, but we don’t think it’s all superficial. They work so damn hard to keep the place spotless, cleaning and changing beds every day. They are up at the crack of dawn starting breakfast. They are up late at night checking people in. They advise on tours without any hard sell – quite the difference from almost everywhere else in Hoi An or Vietnam.
So, we say our fond farewells to Vietnam and Hoi An. Or do we?
The answer is no. We’ve now changed plans and are leaving Malaysia two weeks earlier than planned. To come back to Vietnam. To come back to Hoi An. To come back to Banana Garden Villa.
The Banana staff reaction was “you’re coming home”, mishearing this, we thought they said that “you’re now going home” so we said, no, we’re actually going to be coming back to Hoi An! We stand corrected and are told “No, you’re coming home, this is now your home”.
Banana Garden Villa – you can check out any time you like…but you can never leave.
Contrary the impression we gave in our last post, Hue isn’t all noise, crowds, and moped fumes. For a century and a half, until 1945, it was the capital of Vietnam and seat of the Nguyen dynasty of emperors. As a result, it has more than its fair share of historic landmarks and war-related destruction, but still contains pockets of relative peace and tranquility.
Bang in the centre is the Imperial Citadel – a vast complex, surrounded by 10km of walls and moats, that housed palaces, administrative buildings, and temples. The power of the Nguyen dynasty declined in the face of French control in the late nineteenth century. The Imperial City was already a shell of its former glory when a six-week stand-off between Vietnamese and French forces in 1945, and between South Vietnamese/US and North Vietnamese forces in 1968, largely completed its destruction.
Last time we visited in 2011, large areas of the complex were still featureless squares of grass. Fifteen years later, it’s transformed with new landscaping around many restored and reconstructed buildings.
Two things strike us immediately. One: it’s quiet. Oh, so quiet. Aaaah. We wander for a couple of hours between the smaller keeps that make up the wider complex, each walled with its own gardens. Two: there seem to be lots of professional photo shoots going on. Dozens of people are dressed in traditional Vietnamese costumes and posing for photos in front of magnificent buildings. It takes us a few days to work out that this is not a graduation ceremony, magazine shoot, or PR campaign – it’s a pastime. Vietnamese people make a day out of it by hiring beautiful outfits and having photography done by pros or just friends.
Beyond the Citadel, the Nguyen emperors were big on tombs, seven of which are dotted around the outskirts of Hue. These are not humble grave sites – each is a palace in its own right. Many emperors started designing and building them before their deaths and most took decades to finish.
Through the next week we visit four and quickly discern a pattern to their layout. All are set in beautiful gardens. All guarded by a set of statues – elephants, horses, and warriors. All feature a huge stone tablet with the emperor’s eulogy carved on it, often flanked by two huge pillars. These features guide you to the final resting place, usually contained within its own walled sanctuary.
Each, though, has its own distinct flavour. The tomb of Minh Mang (ruled 1820-1839) was all precision, symmetry, and order – suited to the emperor who set up administration systems, initiated public works, stood up to foreign incursion (whether military, trade, or religion), and consolidated Vietnam’s power in the region.
The tomb of Tu Duc (ruled 1847-1883) is all winding waterways and pretty vistas, often described as ‘poetic’ it suits an emperor consumed by self-doubt and whose regime ultimately surrendered to the French.
Emperor Khai Dinh (ruled 1916-1925) was little more than a puppet ruler, very unpopular with ordinary people, and sealed his reputation when he created enormous hardship for Vietnamese peasants by raising taxes to pay for his own (rather magnificent and towering) tomb.
Dong Khanh (ruled 1885-1889) was the first of the French puppet emperors. His tomb is not as grand as others but in its grounds are two others for Nguyen princes. In amongst cool woods and largely open air, they were by far the prettiest we visited.
Finally, we saw the Thien Mu pagoda. A Buddhist temple, first raised in 1601, it became a focal point of resistance against the Vietnamese government in 1963. Famously, one of its monks, Thich Quang Duc, drove with others to Saigon where he burned himself to death in protest at the persecution of Buddhists by the regime. Pictures flew around the world and, ultimately, speeded the downfall of the government. The blue Ford Austin they drove that day is now housed at the temple.
Despite its history of resistance and revolution, the temple itself is serene; full of landscaped gardens, pools of koi, bonsai trees, and butterflies. The contrast with its history and with Hue itself couldn’t be more carp…er, stark.
Two weeks of relaxation in Hoi An and it’s time to move on to the historic city of Hue, seat of the Nguyen dynasty of Emperors, more on whom later. We arrive at our small but perfectly formed hostel in the centre of town. Being posh backpackers, we have the big front room with a balcony that overlooks a little side street. Birds sing and huge butterflies bob and weave amongst the branches that overhang the courtyard below. After a three-hour drive, we’re ready for an afternoon nap and we awake in the early evening to the strains of…
…banging techno. Yes, it appears that our little hostel, and particularly our font facing room, is next door to a bar. A big bar. And it’s one that takes its ‘all night long’ claim very seriously. The music starts at 5.55pm and finishes around 5.55am. You can feel the bass through the bedroom wall. Their efforts are supported by barking dogs, revving motorbikes (Hue is the home of countless ‘easy riders’ who will take you anywhere in the country on two-wheels), and a guy on a pedal bike with a remarkably powerful amp system selling his fresh omelettes up and down the street all night. All. Night.
By the second day, we are seriously sleep deprived. Yet, despite our increasingly twitchy eyes and gradually dissolving brains, we are quite fond of the area we find ourselves in. It’s one of a set of three ‘walking streets’ in downtown Hue, which close to motorised traffic every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. The rule is actually enforced, unlike in Hoi An, so that people can spill out across the roads without constantly looking over their shoulders for a moped or taxi bearing down on them.
As far as we can tell, there’s about a 50/50 split of locals and tourists. That means the music is mostly Vietnamese, with a smattering of Korean and Chinese artists. Families are out in the early evening and it’s also very popular for grown-ups’ birthday parties, many of which feature lots of group chants and one solitary karaoke offering towards the end of the night from the birthday girl or boy.
There are some decent restaurants, including our favourite – Maison Trang. Tucked away at the end of a dog-leg alley, it escapes the worst of the noise despite being very busy (it’s a table-sharing set up) and so popular that people are queuing for a seat by 7.30pm. Unlike most places, its vegetarian options are just as good as the meat, it offers straightforward home-style cooking, it’s cheap, and portions are plentiful – so Chloe and Allan are both very, very happy.
We quickly realise that the only way through the week will be to do things in the morning then come back and sleep through the strangely peaceful afternoons. I mean, omelette-man still plies his endless loop and dogs continue to bark. The bar next door uses the downtime to do maintenance, build new barbecues, dump the empty bottles from the night before. The easy riders congregate, revving their engines and accosting tourists with promises of the wind in their hair and freedom of the open road. But, you know, relatively peaceful…
